EUROPEAN COMMISSION DAILY NEWS – 11 JULY

11 Jul 2018

EUROPEAN COMMISSION DAILY NEWS – 11 JULY

President Juncker and High Representative/Vice-President Mogherini to participate in NATO Summit

President Jean-Claude Juncker and High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini, together with European Council President Donald Tusk, will today and tomorrow participate in the NATO Summit in Brussels. The European Union and NATO are strategic partners, cooperating to promote peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area, as reconfirmed in the Joint Declaration on EU – NATO cooperation signed by the two Presidents and Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday. In line with the two organisations’ commitment to full mutual openness, President Juncker will on Wednesday evening participate in the working dinner of Heads of State or Government. High Representative/Vice-President Mogherini will in parallel participate in the Foreign Ministers’ dinner. On Thursday, both will take part in the session dedicated to Operation Resolute Support in Afghanistan. Both President Juncker and HR/VP Mogherini will have a number of bilateral meetings in the margins of the Summit. For more information on EU-NATO cooperation see the factsheet online. Audio-visual coverage will be available on EbS.

TRADE: Commission engages with stakeholders in meeting of the Advisory Group on EU Trade Agreements

The Commission will today hold the third meeting of the Advisory Group on EU Trade Agreements, a body created in September 2017 to allow the Commission to foster in-depth dialogue with civil society and gather more easily different perspectives and insights from a wide and balanced group of stakeholders. In its third meeting, the group composed of 28 organisations representing businesses, trade unions, consumers and environmental groups will discuss the implementation of the EU-Canada Comprehensive Trade Agreement (CETA) in the preparation of the CETA Joint Committee scheduled for September 2018; issues related to cross-border data flows and personal data protection in trade and investment negotiations, as well as consumer issues in trade agreements, including those related to public health. More details about the meeting are available online. The report of the meeting will be published in the following days. The advisory group builds on the Commission’s long-standing, active dialogue with civil society on trade issues and other transparency mechanisms, including regular publication of EU negotiating proposals, in line with commitments made in the “Trade for All” strategy of 2015.

NEW Eurostat publication – A statistical portrait of the European Union compared with G20 countries – The EU in the world – 2018 edition

The fifth edition of the Eurostat publication “The EU in the world” compares the European Union (EU) with the 15 non-EU Group of Twenty (G20) countries in the areas of society, the economy and the environment. It looks at population, living conditions, health, education and training, the labour market, economy and finance, international trade, agriculture and fisheries, industry and services, research and development, transport, environment and energy. Full text available here